kevineugenius
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2006
- Messages
- 1,415
This is a fact-finding mission that I plan to implement, at least partially, to teach myself and to construct a series of guides that others can follow to learn as well.
Motivation: lately I've been learning about enterprise level SAN and NAS storage and, although I know enough to set up a rudimentary home network, it's become very apparent that I don't really know anything about networks and/or security. Building one of my own will be my way of learning things.
I am not asking people to answer all these questions. What I'm looking for is guidance on what I should be researching, what I should be skipping, and what the components of a kicka**, feature-rich, secure, and just plain impressive home network are. Once I know what they are and how to, roughly, organize them I will locate guides and whatnot on how to actually implement them and perhaps some more specific questions may come here. I don't expect anyone to answer this vague of a question on here.
To-do List:
Any additional thoughts? I don't mind if some of the suggestions are over the top. The point of this isn't exactly to use all of these features on a daily basis but to learn how the stuff works.
*Ever go somewhere with free wifi and try to connect to their network and it just sits at 'authenticating' or connects and then drops a second later to never be seen again? I hate that crap. I want my wireless to a quality product. I don't need five 9s of uptime but I'd like at least two 9s...
Motivation: lately I've been learning about enterprise level SAN and NAS storage and, although I know enough to set up a rudimentary home network, it's become very apparent that I don't really know anything about networks and/or security. Building one of my own will be my way of learning things.
I am not asking people to answer all these questions. What I'm looking for is guidance on what I should be researching, what I should be skipping, and what the components of a kicka**, feature-rich, secure, and just plain impressive home network are. Once I know what they are and how to, roughly, organize them I will locate guides and whatnot on how to actually implement them and perhaps some more specific questions may come here. I don't expect anyone to answer this vague of a question on here.
To-do List:
- What features are useful in a home network? This is where I think I need the most help. What do I actually want? Is a dedicated file server better than just sharing a folder? Is a separate media center style box useful or is a Slingbox or Xbox or ___ a better alternative? My current feature list that I'd like to see, but I feel should be expanded, is this:
- Shared files
- Storage Redundancy
- Automatic Backup
- Remote PC Access
- Intruder Prevention
- Wireless that actually works consistently*
- Optimized Speeds, LAN and WAN
- Good VOIP
- What things can be built using spare parts or very inexpensive parts? Here I'm specifically thinking about a Linux box for a firewall. But what else have I not thought of?
- How do you secure a network? The aforementioned firewall should be a somewhat decent place to start, right? It seems like you can also secure things with routing (I could be off base here) and I'm not sure how the firewall would keep wireless secure (it would secure WAN traffic but not a local hacker who is trying to get through the wireless).
- Is a server of any kind necessary or can a 'home' PC handle everything? Do I want a small NAS for shared storage? Should I use recycled parts to build a file server and load it up with drives and create a $SHARE? Is it even worth the trouble or should each PC just have a shared folder?
- How can you optimize a network up to, and including, settings that will maximize performance between ISP and each individual NIC? No clue here. A guy at work once said that when he telecommutes he has a great connection because he did bla bla settings and called Comcast and made them change the bla bla foo bar to make the bla bla more efficient. No idea what he said. I will, however, start working from home 2x per week so if it's possible, I'd love to do it. I don't even know where to start though.
- What sort of topology should be used to connect all of these ideas? I can attempt to diagram out how everything will connect once the feature list gets more filled.
- DNS, Subnetting, IPv6, routing tables, etc? Is it necessary/useful?
Any additional thoughts? I don't mind if some of the suggestions are over the top. The point of this isn't exactly to use all of these features on a daily basis but to learn how the stuff works.
*Ever go somewhere with free wifi and try to connect to their network and it just sits at 'authenticating' or connects and then drops a second later to never be seen again? I hate that crap. I want my wireless to a quality product. I don't need five 9s of uptime but I'd like at least two 9s...
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